Stan Won't Dance was founded in 2003 by Ellie Beedham, Liam Steel and Rob Tannion.

The company's first production, Sinner, premièred in the UK in 2004 to great critical and public acclaim and went on to tour Britain, the USA and Canada, gaining a nomination for the prestigious Toronto Tapa Dora Award.

Stan Won't Dance are currently Artists in Residence at The Lowry, Salford. They were Artists in Residence at the South Bank Centre in London 2005-2008.

Michael Abbensetts was born in Guyana and spent some of his childhood in Canada. He has written many plays for stage, television and radio, as well as the two television series Empire Road and Little Napoleons. He was winner of the George Devine Award, Resident Dramatist at the Royal Court Theatre in 1974 and Visiting Professor of Drama at Carnegie-Mellon University, USA, in 1981/82. He is currently Writer in Residence at the University of North London.

Hassan Abdulrazzak holds a PhD in Molecular Biology. He has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London and Harvard University. In 2006 he co-organised the Iraqi Documentary Film Festival at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Hassan Abdulrazzak's first play, Baghdad Wedding, was staged at Soho Theatre. Hassan was awarded the 2008 George Devine and Meyer-Whitworth Awards and the 2009 Pearson Award.

Jorge Accame was born in Buenos Aires in 1956. He obtained a Master in Letters and moved to San Salvador De Jujuy in North West Argentina in 1997. In 1998 he won the ACE prize for 'Venecia' as best off-Corrientes play and the Florenceio Sanchez prize for best author. In addition to his plays, he has published short stories, novels and poetry.

Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight is Peter's debut play, and ran off-Broadway in New York for six months and regionally throughout the US. It was recorded for radio by LA Theatre Works and broadcast on member NPR stations in the US and Canada. Peter has since written The Urn, which ran off off-Broadway and a radio play, I'd Rather Eat Pants. He is co-author of the animated movie, Ice Age, and is currently writting Jumanji 2 for Sony. As an actor he appeared off-Broadway in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) and in Visiting Mr Green.

Rodney Ackland was born in 1908 in Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex and studied at London's Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. His first play, 'Improper People', was produced at the Arts Theatre Club, London in 1929. After his 1932 West End debut with 'Strange Orchestra', Ackland went on to have many other successes, but his work then fell into virtual obscurity for three decades until 'The Dark River' (1942) was revived at the Orange Tree, Richmond in 1985. It was acclaimed by Hilary Spurling in The Spectator as "perhaps the one indisputably great play of the past half century in English". The subsequent success of 'Absolute Hell' at the Orange Tree, Royal National Theatre and on BBC TV in the 1990s restored Ackland's reputation as a great playwright. He died in 1991.

Arthur Adamov was born in Russia in 1910, but lived in France from 1922 and wrote in French. His playwriting took various directions through his life, with periods when he was unable to write due to depression. He was a strong supporter of Communism, and some of his plays are seen as belonging to 'Theatre of the Absurd'.

Judith Adams began writing for the Theatre in 1990. Her first stage play was 'Burdalane'. She became writer-in-residence for Sheffield Theatres where she developed 'The Bone Room Trilogy': 'The Bone Room'; 'Fools Mate' and 'Black Queen'. Both Burdalane and The Bone Room were finalists in the Susan Smith Blackburn Award.

Mojisola began performing as a street rapper in the 1980s before embarking on a formal education and training in theatre. Mojisola trained extensively with Augusto Boal (Theatre of the Oppressed), performed at the Theatre of the Oppressed Festival in Rio de Janeiro, taught alongside Boal in post-apartheid South Africa. Mojisola has worked professionally in theatre over the past two decades, specialising in theatre for social change, particularly in areas of conflict and crisis. She has devised/scripted and directed over 30 plays and lead countless workshops, with companies including Cardboard Citizens, Clean Break, Heart and Soul, and Mind the…Gap.

Kay Adshead is an actor, director and poet as well as playwright. Her theatrical work includes: 'Thatcher's Women' (Paines Plough / The Tricycle Theatre / national tour); 'Bacillus' (The Royal Court / The Red Room); 'After the Party' (Liverpool Playhouse) and 'The Slug Sabbatical, a performance poem' (The Red Room).

Born in Eleusis, he served in the army, was wounded at Marathon (490BC) and probably fought at Salamis (480). His plays include: The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound, SUppliants and the Oresteia, which comprises three plays about the murder of Agamemnon and its consequences and was his last great success on the Athenian stage (458).